en handed to him--while the cops completed the
examination of his room. They were insanely thorough, though Hoddan
hadn't the least idea what they might be looking for. When they began to
rip up the floor and pull down the walls, the other cops led him
outside.

* * * * *

There was a fleet of police trucks in the shaded street outdoors. They
piled him in one, and four cops climbed after him, keeping stun-pistols
trained on him during the maneuver. Out of the corner of his eye he saw
Derec climbing into another truck. The entire fleet sped away together.
The whole affair had been taken with enormous seriousness by the police.
Traffic was detoured from their route. When they swung up on an elevated
expressway, with raised-up trees on either side, there was no other
vehicle in sight. They raced on downtown.

They rolled off the expressway. They rolled down a cleared avenue.
Hoddan recognized the Detention Building. Its gate swung wide. The truck
he rode in went inside. The gate closed. The other trucks went
away--rapidly. Hoddan alighted and saw that the grim gray wall of the
courtyard had a surprising number of guards mustered to sweep the open
space with gunfire if anybody made a suspicious movement.

He shook his head. Nobody had mentioned Zan, so this simply didn't make
sense. His conscience was wholly clear except about his native planet.
This was insanity! He went curiously into the building and into the
hearing room. His guards, there, surrendered him to courtroom guards and
went away with almost hysterical haste. Nobody wanted to be near him.

Hoddan stared about. The courtroom was highly informal. The justice sat
at an ordinary desk. There were comfortable chairs. The air was clean.
The atmosphere was that of a conference room in which reasonable men
could discuss differences of opinion in calm leisure. Only on a world
like Walden would a prisoner brought in by police be dealt with in such
surroundings.

Derec came in by another door, with a man Hoddan recognized as the
attorney who'd represented Nedda's father in certain past interviews.
There'd been no mention of Nedda as toying with the thought of marrying
Hoddan then, of course. It had been strictly business. Nedda's father
was Chairman of the Power Board, a director of the Planetary Association
of Manufacturers, a committeeman of the Banker's League, and other
important things. Hoddan had been thrown out of his offices se